News In Focus
14 December 2006
£60,000 compensation for coffee machine fall
A faulty coffee machine has led to a kitchen assistant being awarded more than £60,000 in damages for breaking her hip and wrist in a fall.
Helen Given was working in the canteen at James Watt College, Greenock, when, she claimed, the machine started to hiss, spurt out jets of steam and then gave out a sudden electrical flash that had caused the 61-year-old to take a step back and fall over.
She claimed that the machine had a history of breaking down and engineers had been called out repeatedly to fix it, and that the college should have taken it out of service.
In an opinion issued at the Court of Session yesterday, Lord Emslie accepted Mrs Given's account.
The judge conceded that he had initially held doubts about Mrs Given's version as he had not been able to imagine someone falling so badly as a result of stepping back from an electrical flash. However on balance he was prepared to accept her evidence as accurate.
"Truth is, as the saying goes, often stranger than fiction, and in the whole circumstances I am ultimately unable to say that the pursuer's account of the incident is either impossible, or so inherently improbable that it simply cannot be accepted", he said.
"People do sometimes unaccountably lose their balance or footing in circumstances where they would not normally be expected to fall, and a sudden fright must obviously increase the risk of unexpected consequences."
Lord Emslie said that the manageress, Miss Ritchie, had "very fairly and frankly admitted that she could and should have done more than she did to ensure the safety of people like the pursuer who had to work in close proximity to the machine", and the college could therefore not escape a finding of negligence.
Mrs Given was awarded £30,500 in damages for loss of earnings, £20,000 for pain and suffering and £5,000 for the help provided to her by her husband after she left hospital. Adding the interest to the total, Mrs Given was awarded £60,426.
Lord Emslie's opinion can be read at http://www.scotcourts.gov.uk/opinions/2006CSOH189.html .